In May 2011, it was announced that Google Chromebooks will be available commercially in the mid of June. A lot of people who have been waiting for the launch of Chromebooks are now thinking to replace their computers with Chrome Netbooks. This article is just for you if you are a person using MacBook Air and thinking to switch to Chrome Netbook.

Chromebook is no MacBook; however, if you are looking for speed, affordability and convenience then Netbook could be the right choice for you.

A Chromebook saves all the data on Google's "Cloud" and has no space for storing data in the Chromebook itself. Chrome Netbook is specifically made for the people who just use computer to access internet.

MacBook Air costs almost $1299 and a Chromebook will cost almost $400. Let's compare some of the features of Chrome Netbook and MacBook Air.

The weight of Chromebook is around 3.8 pounds with a 12" screen. The weight of MacBook air is 2.3 pounds with 11" screen and 2.9 pounds with 13" screen.

The battery of Netbook is designed to last up to 8 hours when in use; on standby the battery can last up to a week. MacBook comes with a battery that offers 5 hours of web use; on standby it can last up to 30 days.

Both Chromebook and MacBook Air book within 10 seconds. Both devices start with 2 GB of RAM. However, with a MacBook Air, you can get a 4 GB Ram if you want. Both the devices have 64 GB of Storage.

Internet is a requirement for Netbook, it comes with Verizon 3G Connectivity and Wi-Fi. Google's Chrome OS website has stated that Verizon will give 100 MB of free data and they will also launch affordable package for Chrome Netbook users.

The starting price of Netbook is $299 and that of the MacBook Air is $999.

Conclusion:

A graphic designer or an avid gamer cannot replace his MacBook with a Chrome Netbook as the latter is not designed for applications like Photoshop or games like Halo. However, students and people who like convenience and simplicity should opt for Chrome Netbook. As all the data is saved on the Cloud, therefore, there is no risk of losing the data, even if you lose or damage your Netbook. Chromebook is also very economical as compared to MacBook. So what you think? Which one is better for you?

Read news reviews and learn more about the new Chromebook

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=M_Ali_Khalid

So you want to buy an e-Reader, but you don't know which one to buy? Well you have come to the right place because in the following article we will be looking at each of these hot products that are flying off the shelves. We will pit each one against one another under several different categories to find out which will reign supreme. But ultimately only you know which you prefer, so which is better, the Apple iPad or the Amazon Kindle?

For thousands of years man has read books! Books printed on paper! But in the last few years this has suddenly become lame. Who wants to be seen with an old fashioned book when you could be reading on a shiny new e-Reader. Many people said that the e-Reader would never catch on, but how foolish must they feel now, major egg on face! The e-Reader is one of the hottest products on the market at the moment and they are getting even more popular. Two of the most famous and equally popular are the Apple iPad and the Amazon Kindle. Both are fighting it out for this newly emerging and highly profitable market. But which one will win your custom? iPad vs Kindle, let the squabble begin!

Design

These two products have very different designs for what is essentially a simple concept, to read books electronically. The iPad follows in the footsteps of it's siblings the iPod and iPhone by being sleek, sexy and uber cool. A large, full colour LCD touchscreen allows the user to realistically turn pages with just a single swipe of the finger across the screen and you can zoom into pages if you find any print too small with the use of two fingers. The only draw back of this is persistent fingerprints, but a quick wipe with a suitable cloth gets rid of them easily. The iPad screen is also backlit with the ability to adjust the brightness, which means that you can read all of your books in the dark. The Kindle is, well let's face it, no where near as sexy or cool as the iPad, but for what it lacks in style it more than makes up for in practicality. You can read the Kindle in direct sunlight due to it's E-ink screen, however this only offers 16 shades of grey and can struggle with some graphics.

To compare the two based on design, the iPad would win hands down. Yes, the Kindle does the job of allowing the user to read books, however the iPad let's you do it in style.

Battery

The iPad has a battery life of approximately 10 hours, which is more than than enough for the average person to read in a single sitting. This is however annihilated by the Kindle which can go for days and weeks without needing a charger. Amazon claims that it will last up to a month with the wireless turned off. Kindle wins hands down!

Portability

Admittedly, either of these are infinitely better than hauling all the physical books and magazines around on your back, but for simple everyday portability the iPad is beaten by the feather like Kindle. Apple's iPad is 680g (iPad 2 is 600g) compared to the Kindle weighing in at 247g.

The iPad is 13mm thick (iPad 2 is 8.6mm) Compared to the Kindle which is 8.6mm. The Kindle can be carried around in your back pocket due to it's size (190 x 123mm), whereas the iPad needs to be carried around in a bag due to it's larger size (243 x 190mm). Therefore the Kindle is king in the portability category.

Content

The point of having an e-Reader is to let you read the books that you want to read. The Amazon Kindle has a vast library of books of over half a million for you to download and read. It also allows you to read blogs, newspapers and magazines that are uploaded to your device daily. This amazing amount of content simply cant compete with the huge volume of content that is available on the iPad. This is because the Kindle is exclusively for Amazon content, whereas the iPad has access to it's own iBooks store, the whole of the amazon kindle library through the Kindle App, and many other vast libraries of content through corresponding apps, as well as being able to download and read PDFs from anywhere on the web. The iPad wins easily due to it's vastly superior amounts of content.

Price

Currently here are the versions that you can buy for an approximate price at today's prices;

iPad 2

Wi-Fi...................................£399. ($650). (€450)
3G access...........................£2-15 a month. ($3.25-24.45). (€2.26-16.96) Varies depending on network

Kindle 3

Wi-Fi only..........................£111. ($180). (€125)
3G lifetime access.............£152. ($248). (€172)

Prices obviously vary from shop to shop, and currency to currency, and you can buy more expensive models with larger storage capacity. Amazon tends to sell their books much cheaper than iBooks do. My advice would be to shop around and find the best price/bundle for you!

Conclusion

Well pitting these two products against each other is a bit unfair due to the varying uses of the iPad. If you are after a device to solely read books on then buy a Kindle, it's a great product and serves it's purpose excellently. If however you are looking for a device to read books on AND do other things like listen to music, write, draw, watch movies, surf the Internet, do presentations, things for work, view photos, etc. then the iPad is for you. Ultimately, only you know which you prefer, so which do you think is better, the Apple iPad or the Amazon Kindle?

My name is Matt and I am a writer for http://www.TheSquabble.com a great website that lets people discuss and debate over a wide variety of topics. Currently we have articles added regularly covering products/brands, politics, sport, people and many others. If you have something to squabble about, then we are the place to do it.

So check out http://www.TheSquabble.com - Because everyone has something to squabble about!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_R_Smith

In Direct Competition with Apple?
The TouchPad is the first tablet to be offered by HP which will run on its highly touted webOS platform designed by Palm, the company HP acquired last year. This is the tablet that HP hopes will be a strong competitor in the tablet wars of 2011. In the fall of 2010, HP introduced an Android based tablet bundled with a printer. Earlier, HP introduced the HP Slate 500, a Windows 7 tablet PC. Of course, it would seem obvious that naming the new device a "pad" rather than some variation of "tablet" would give the impression that this new TouchPad is meant to be in direct competition with the Apple iPad.

Similarities of TouchPad to Apple's iPad:
The HP TouchPad is 13.7mm thick (the iPad is 13.4mm) and weighs 1.6 lbs. It shares the specs of the Apple iPad with its 9.7" capacitive multitouch screen with a resolution of 1024x768. Since neither the TouchPad nor the iPad come in the preferred 16:9 aspect ratio of most Android tablets, experiencing high definition widescreen movies may be disappointing in comparison. However the screen resolution of the TouchPad and the iPad are much better suited for reading documents and digital publications.

There is also a similarity between the TouchPad and the iPad in regard to wireless connectivity and internal stereo speakers. The HP speakers (Beats by Dre) have already been in use on HP's Envy laptops and produce a superior audio output experience. The TouchPad also comes with the option of either 16GB or 32GB and it too has a Wi-Fi-only or a 3G-enabled option which includes a GPS and a mobile broadband radio. 4G is expected to come at a later time. At this point in time there is no memory card reader available to expand the memory.

Differences Between TouchPad and iPad:
The big differences between the HP and the Apple device are, of course, the operating systems and the Touchpad's CPU, microUSB charger port, LED alert light and gyroscope, as well as its wireless charging system, dubbed Touchstone. Of course, unlike the iPad, the HP device supports Adobe Flash.

The TouchPad also avoids Apple's multiple-layered onscreen keyboard, includes a row of numbers with its touch keys for easier text entry and can be resized on-the-fly. And, not to be undone by Apple and its accessories for the iPad, there are a number of these available for the TouchPad as well, which include a specially designed HP case, the TouchStone charger and stand system and an "ultraslim wireless keyboard" for easier text entry.

The HP TouchPad has a 1.3 megapixel webcam in the front which supports video calling. It will not possess a camera in the back, a feature that HP feels is not usually utilized fully by tablet users anyway since most have their smartphones handy for that purpose. The TouchPad will include an accelerometer and a compass. It will run Qualcomm's extremely fast processor, the Snapdragon dual-core APQ8060 at 1.2GHz. It belongs to the third generation Snapdragon processors and allows for high-definition, 3D video and multi-tasking abilities.

Users will also be able to access and edit Microsoft Office documents and the platform also supports VPN (virtual private networking for secure remote access). Applications such as the email and Internet browser programs have been optimized for the larger screen using panes and collapsible menus. The way in which several applications will be active on the screen at one time will also be unique. These will be "cards", not icons and they will be able to be swiped off the homescreen or stacked on top of each other for related tasks.

Probably the biggest difference that sets Apple and HP apart in regard to Tablet PC manufacture is that Apple sees the iPad as the all-in-one portable device that can fulfill most of the needs of the customer and HP sees the Tablet as having more of a complementary function sitting somewhere in between the smartphone and the PC. It will be very interesting to track the way consumers react to this new device with its webOS operating system as it competes with the Apple iPad as well as all the other tablet entries being introduced this year.

Make sure to keep up-to-date with information about all the new tablet pcs and operating systems by following my blog. New information will be added on a regular basis to my website as well.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Harriet_M_Adams

So it is approaching Summer of 2011 and if you're anything like me you've held out pretty much as long as you can hold out, waiting for what's going to be the hottest phone for the next good little while. My first true smart phone was the original 8GB iPhone in 2007, back when it was the "Silver-back Big Boy." Before that I had a Motorola Q, which was the smart phone of an earlier time, but didn't really hold a flame to what is now considered a smart phone. Having the newest hottest phone is something that started in high school for me (2001); I was one of the first kids on the block with a huge text messaging plan, custom full-audio ring tones, and Sprint's version of mobile web (Vision I think?). After having the Touch Point it's been steps up only from there.

So, in having the iPhone, I literally loved everything about it. It was not only a sexy phone, but a useful one. Built-in map and GPS, high-quality email capability, and what seemed then like the closest a phone could get to a real web-browser; it was a dream. Obviously, the progression that the iPhone has made over the years only expanded on its original key features and it's even more impressive than before. Unfortunately, it's no longer leaps and bounds ahead of every other phone on the market; before, not only was it the sexiest phone, but no other phone could touch its features, today, not so much. Now I'm left debating: Do I want to continue with the sexy design, stable/reliable OS that I know and trust, and widest compatibility with after-market products? Or move on to the newer, open, growing, innovative platform from a company that I love more than just about any other company on the planet (Google, which I love; opposed to Apple that I admire and appreciate, but kind of dislike), with handsets that have 4G NOW, do everything an iPhone can do and more, and who seem to be just scratching the surface of what they're capable of? And lastly, what about Blackberry; are they going to catch-up and if so, when; and is BBM worth being FAR behind the curve (no pun intended) in technology?

Oh Blackberry, I have also grown to love you as well; for entirely different reasons than the iPhone of course. iPhone is the hot blonde girlfriend I've had for a good little while now, but we always have something in the way of us taking the next step; you're the beautiful, sweet brunette with cute square-framed glasses, that's smart and charming, that I met in my Internet Marketing program. We get along so great, you totally get me, but I'm not sure if we'd work out long-term; it seems you prefer a much more simple life, yet I have huge goals and aspirations and prefer the fast-life. Do you think you can handle a life with me in the fast lane? Well, Blackberry, CAN YOU?

After having the iPhone for a while, I purchased an 8530, then the 9330, and never got around to the full-featured 9650; I've learned what the craze was about Blackberry, and more specifically "BBM." But being so far behind in technology and sex-appeal started to get to me after a while. I was "used-to" the iPhone now: touch screen didn't wow me anymore, apps smapps, I want to try something new, grown-up, business-like. Blackberry fulfilled my expectations, even exceeding them in some aspects, but it's Summer 2011 and I have a big plans; the last thing I need is a phone that can't keep up with my constant pix Tweeting, Word Press blogging HD Video shooting, Facebook mobile uploading, international Skype messaging, Adobe Flash site visiting, hotspot internet sharing, cloud-based music listening... need I continue? Blackberry, it looks like we might be great together, just not at this time in my life.

I've been waiting for the Motorola Droid Bionic and have officially gotten over the excitement I had when there was speculation of an early 2011 release. Now the Thunderbolt is looking quite appealing; it's available now, it's 4G, and the tech blog nerds are speculating that dual-core processors are over-kill for at least a year or so... Um, what else would I be waiting for? Not only that, but there's been like 15 Droids released in the past couple of months, one of which I think has dual-core (I'm not going to look that up, it doesn't matter either way), so Bionic you're really losing me fast baby! There was already the question of HTC vs Moto anyway. By and large it seems people are in preference of HTC; I don't know either way because I haven't really played with many Droids, but coming from a Motorola Q way back when, and a few other Moto phones, I'm not so sure I'd dislike Moto as much as the others. The other manufacturers of Droid I haven't paid much attention to; as I have no plans of getting one of the "late to the party trying to catch-up" models, no matter how great of a job they're doing at catching-up.

So if I'm not going to wait, the question becomes which Droid would be the front-runner for me? Easy right? Thunderbolt, duh! Not so fast though. Yes, 4G blah blah blah and everything any Droid on the market can do for the most part, except connect to the not-quite- a-computer-thing. But do I really want to go that high-end right-away? Or do I want to get a mid-level Droid like the Incredible 2, which is still quite sexy and feature packed, but I wouldn't feel quite as bad scrapping it in a few months if something amazing comes out like say 'er an iPhone5 or lord-willing even better; I can't even imagine such a product! The Incredible 2 is a sexy little beast, I actually like it's look, feel, and weight better than the Thunderbolt; but not having 4G when I live and am in a 4G capable area over 85% of my usage-time is a pretty big mark to miss. At this point it's looking like three possibilities: Thunderbolt, iPhone4, or Incredible 2 (don't even speak to me about Droid X, that phone is hideous, I don't care if it could keep me company at night, I have standards).

Now, that I've pretty much removed Blackberry from the running for now (your technological short-comings are too vast to choose you; I'd be choosing you for nothing more than brand loyalty and bbm, and we just don't have that kind of history), narrowed my choices down to two Droids (Thunderbolt and Incredible 2) and the iPhone4, the question comes down to which one of these? This is where I'm somewhat stuck, and ultimately I'm thinking that it's going to come down to price. I'm not eligible for an upgrade, so I'll be purchasing pre-owned or full-retail. If I can't find a suitable pre-owned, the iPhone4 and Thunderbolt are immediately eliminated; I will not be spending $600 on a phone this Summer, I'll much rather enjoy an extra week out of the country. So far I've found a couple Thunderbolts for a little less than $400, a couple of iPhone4 for the same, and only one Incredible 2 for $350; with these prices it's for sure Thunderbolt or iPhone4; and with what I mentioned about 4G and open platform I think Thunderbolt wins.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jaynen_Marshall

While the iPad is generally meant to be a link in products from the iPhone to the MacBook Pro it has a vast number of functions that can be compared to that of the MacBook Pro. The iPad is considered a tablet PC and offers the ease of touch screen technology and portability. The MacBook Pro is considered a laptop PC and offers a bit power and functionality then the iPad while still being relatively portable.

Users of the iPhone may find that the iPad offers much of the same features as the iPad. The difference between the two being that the iPad has a much larger view area. If you are looking for a gadget that offers some basic functions of a PC such as internet, e-mail, word processing, and some applications then the iPad is perfect for you. The MacBook pro on the other hand is a fully functional PC with many more capabilities and infinitely more digital storage space. When designing the iPad I think Apple leaned a bit too much towards the iPhone.

While the size of the iPad is much more convenient to carry around then the MacBook Pro, users will notice a loss in power due to it's smaller size. Being one of it's major selling points, the size of the iPad has been reported to have over heating issues when exposed to direct sunlight. Most major electronics are not meant to handle the heat of direct sunlight over extended periods of time however with something like the portability of the iPad, designers should have taken this into consideration.

The MacBook Pro has been on the market for much longer then the iPad. I am sure that the MacBook Pro had it's share of quirks when it was first produced as well. If you are thinking of adding an iPad to your gadget arsenal consider waiting till the second model comes out. This will give designers a good idea of what can be improved on and you won't be wasting your money on a prototype model.

All in all I think at this point the macbook pro has my money. I personally own an iPhone and a laptop PC. I can't think any reason why I would want anything in between. If the iPad operated more on level with the MacBook Pro I could definitely see the attraction to this gadget's portability perk. Before completely putting the iPad out of mind I would like to see where Apple decides to go with it in the next few years.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Wagner